


Teach Me How To Say Goodbye

by HalRose



Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Angst, Angst and Feels, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Destroy Ending, F/M, Fluff and Angst, I Will Go Down With This Ship, Mass Effect 3, Shakarian - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-11
Updated: 2020-08-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:55:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25844638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HalRose/pseuds/HalRose
Summary: Garrus is never really that good at goodbyes - ME3 DESTROY ENDING
Relationships: Female Shepard/Garrus Vakarian
Comments: 8
Kudos: 12





	Teach Me How To Say Goodbye

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kallonimo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kallonimo/gifts).



> So I wrote this because my friend Kallonimo has been doing really well and finished their prompt projects with Garrus and Fem Shep, so I wrote this in revenge for their last fic. Enjoy?  
> I know its kinda short
> 
> Also please let me know if you spot any mistakes so I can rectify them. Thank you!

**Garrus**

We’d been searching for her ever since the relays were rebuilt. I’d never given up hope that she was out there. Everyone knew Shepard was a tough bitch to kill and she’d been brought back by Cerberus and she’d been genetically modified so we all assumed she’d been even tougher to kill.  
I remember our last conversation. Our final words… the final push towards the beam. I’ll never forget what she said.

“I’ll always love you.” 

I promised myself there and then I would come back for her and I’d tear the damn galaxy apart to find her.  
Liara and Tali never left my side, helping me search for her. The Alliance were looking for her, the entire galaxy was looking for their war hero.

And then we got the call, and the whole universe seemed to just stand still.

“They’ve found a body. It’s Shepard, confirmed. She didn’t make it.” Joker has to break the news to us, from the Alliance.

“Oh no. Not Shepard. Please, no.” Tali starts crying and Liara puts a hand on my shoulder.

I don’t know how to react. I go quiet, but on the inside every part of me has shattered into a million pieces.  
This can’t be real.

They bring her body on board the Normandy. She looks so peaceful…she looks like she didn’t suffer.

How do I say goodbye? I don’t want to say goodbye. Is it really a goodbye if we meet again in the next life?  
We did promise each other we’d meet at a bar in the next life, if either one of us died.  
We’d wait for one another.

I’m told that I get to arrange the funeral. My Shepard had no family left, until she met me.   
She had the Normandy. She had Liara, she had Tali, Joker, EDI although she went offline when the relays died. She had us. We were her family. And then of coutse there was Anderson…

The Alliance want to give her a full military funeral and are already commissioning statues of her across the galaxy – there will be one on the Citadel and one on Earth. That’s enough for now, they say. 

“How… how do I say goodbye, Liara? I don’t want to...I was never good at goodbyes. I hated them. Teach me… teach me how to say goodbye.” I look to Liara who is silently stood behind me, tears falling.

“She’d want you to remember her, and do good deeds in her honour. Continue her legacy. Tell stories about her.” Liara is struggling to find words to say to make me feel better.

“I never was good at telling stories. Only listening.” I find laughter that passes quickly. “I guess I could try that.”

Keep her memory alive. I would never really have to say goodbye, she’d always be with me. She’d be watching over us.  
I ask Liara if she’ll help me with the funeral, and Tali too. They say they’ll help me and we give our own speeches, and time seems to fly by.  
I can’t remember much else of the funeral – people make speeches, and when it’s my turn, I can’t seem to find the words. I’m thankful to everyone else, but I swear it must be the lack of sleep, because she’s there amongst the crowd… she’s at her own funeral.

I try to follow her as she disappears and turns away, but as quick as I see her, she is gone.

I set up a C-Sec school in her name, I do what Liara tells me to do and I never get to say goodbye. Because when I talk about her, I know she’s alive in my heart.   
I don’t retire. I don’t because it doesn’t feel the same without her. But Liara, Joker, Tali and I travel around the galaxy, visiting old friends and keeping the Normandy going in Shepard’s name.

Years pass, and I’ve grown tired of fighting. I guess what happened all across the years of the war and even before the war, have caught up to me and the next time I wake up, it seems an all too familiar place….  
I walk down the tunnel...and there she is, waiting for me. At the bar with a couple of drinks.

“I told you I’d wait for you, Vakarian.” 

“I’m dead, aren’t I?” I ask, like it isn’t really obvious at all.

She nods and holds out a hand to me.

“We have the rest of eternity together, Garrus.” Shepard says softly.

I look behind me, back to the tunnel.

“I… What about the others? They need me… but… I guess I can’t do anything about it, can I?” I look back to my love again.

“You were never really good at goodbyes, Garrus.”   
That’s when I realise she still looks like the same Shepard I knew – she hasn’t aged in all the years she’s waited for me. 

"Come on, we have a lot of catching up to do.”

“We do, we really do, don’t we?” 

I take her hand.


End file.
